The Super Bowl arrived on millions of televisions around the world on Sunday, and yes, there was a game played in New Orleans but the stuff that happened between touchdowns and timeouts – the commercials – is where the casual fans focused their attentions.

So watched the game, and it was a good one as Super Bowls go (despite the 34 minutes of dead air when the power went out), but we also watched the TV ads and judged the reactions of friends gathered for a Super Bowl party in Huntington Beach.

There were, of course, plenty of commercials for cars and beers and snacks and fast food. So what did we like and what caught our attention most during the non-football parts of the game? We'll start with a horse, a cute little bitty horse.

Sentimental stories

Budweiser's Baby Clydesdale: The farmer raised his baby Clydesdale, which in real-life was only days old when it was filmed for the spot, and when he was old enough delivered him to Budweiser to go to work pulling the traditional Bud wagon. Three years later, the farmer sees an article in the newspaper – good job, farmer, reading your local paper! – that says the Clydesdales are coming to Chicago. Off he drives, as Stevie Nicks' sings "Landslide," to watch the parade, where he and his horse have a touching reunion. Lump in your throat time. Everyone at the TV party agreed: This was the sweetest, most touching ad of the afternoon.

Dodge Ram Farmers: Runner-up for the most sentimental spot of the afternoon was this simple, evocative spot from Dodge. Using a well-known Paul Harvey monologue about how on the eighth day God made farmers, it was illustrated with still photos of hard-working American farmers and their families. The commercial focused mostly on the people and the important role they play in our country, the actual pickup truck was only a supporting player, which made this ad work well.

Fun 'n' games

Taco Bell's Senior Citizens: Fast food restaurants and snack food manufacturers often go for the funny bone when they roll out their Super Bowl spots, and Taco Bell did a good job with this one. Senior citizens sneak out of the old folks home to go partying, dancing in the club, making out with each other (and younger dudes in the bathroom!), getting tattoos, and finally ending up where all party animals do: eating late-night tacos in the parking lot of Taco Bell. We liked this one better than both the Jack In The Box "Hot Mess" spot and the Doritos "Dads Dressed Like Princesses" ones.

Kia's Miracle of Birth: This commercial started off with a dad's surreal explanation of where babies come from that included a baby in an astronaut suit, plenty of baby animals and pink and blue-parachuting infants arriving with their new families. The kindergartner isn't convinced though, saying, "But Jake said ..." which prompts dad to order the car's stereo to play "The Wheels On The Bus," stat! Fun visuals, amusing take on an old concept.

Sex sells?

Go Daddy's Supermodel: Go Daddy is known for pushing the envelope in its Super Bowl ads, and this year their spot featuring supermodel Bar Refaeli making out with an IT nerd did just that. It's not so much that people didn't need to watch that, it's that the lip-and-tongue-smacking soundtrack was just a bit too much. Calvin Klein, meanwhile, pleased all the women gathered at Georgia and Yianni's house, though if you ask us, we don't see what the big deal is about a guy with rock-hard abs cavorting in his underpants.

An OC connection

The Audi "Prom" ad that aired early in the game featured a hapless teen who had to go stag to the prom, a fate saved from disaster by his dad loaning him the keys to the Audi. That gave him the bravery to walk into the prom and kiss the hot prom queen and go home smiling despite his black eye. The prom queen? That's Devon Barnes, an actress-model from Orange County.

A few non-commercial moments

Pop music critic Ben Wener handled the Beyoncé halftime show elsewhere today, but there were a few non-commercial moments that stuck out as memorable for the Super Bowl this time around. The power outage, for one, was startling at first: The stadium dimmed mysteriously, the announcers silenced, the camera slowly panning around the upper reaches of the stadium to wordlessly reveal that the lights had gone out. That was kind of nice, actually, much nicer than the endless filling done by the CBS crew once their mics were back on.

The other moment worth mentioning happened before the game started, when students from Sandy Hook School in Connecticut sang "America, The Beautiful" with singer-actress Jennifer Hudson. It was a subtle moment that could have been overplayed but wasn't, and as such, was a nice tribute to the town and the school and the children who've been in the news so much this post-season.

Related Links

The Budweiser commercial about a baby Clydesdale was among the most touching ad spots at this year's Super Bowl. ANHEUSER-BUSCH VIA NEW YORK TIMES
The Dodge Ram ad featuring a well-known Paul Harvey monologue about farmers put people ahead of product, and was more effective advertising as a result. CHRYSLER GROUP LLC
This was one of the finalists in the Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl" ad competition. PEPSICO
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson made a pitch for milk at this year's Super Bow. MILK PROCESSOR EDUCATION PROGRAM
One of this year's most talked-about ads featured supermodel Bar Refaeli locking lips with a nerd. MCT
An ad for Skechers shoes suggested you could outrun a cheetah in the brand's footwear. SILTANEN & PARTNERS ADVERTISING
Taco Bell ran a humorous spot about old people partying it up. TACO BELL

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